The first comprehensive economic analysis of the mega trade deal Australia signed with 11 other nations including the US, Canada, Japan and Singapore has found Australia will barely benefit from the deal.

Analysis carried out by the World Bank claims the Trans-Pacific Partnership will boost Australia’s economy by just 0.7 per cent by the year 2030, reports Fairfax.

Other members of the trade deal apparently stand to gain greater benefit than Australia, according to the report. Less developed countries that rely more heavily on trade to bolster economic performance, such as Vietnam and Malaysia, benefit the most from the TPP while the economies of Australia and the US won’t see substantial growth due to the deal.

In a brief email exchange with The Associated Press, Penn was asked about images published in Mexican news media Monday that appeared to show officials watching him and actress Kate Del Castillo ahead of their October visit with Guzman.

“I’ve got nothin’ to hide,” he wrote.

Guzman was captured over the weekend, more than three months after Penn’s October 2 meeting with him in central Mexico and six months after escaping from prison.

Penn did not respond directly to questions on whether it was appropriate for him to submit his story to Guzman for approval in advance of publication, or whether he took adequate information and operational security measures to protect his source.

He did say however that he was worried officials were monitoring his trip to interview the fugitive drug lord - a concern that turned out the be founded.

-With AP

8:15am:

A professional boxer who bashed his girlfriend and filmed the aftermath on Snapchat was found guilty yesterday in a Newcastle court.

Kyron “Hitman” Dryden, the International Boxing Organisation youth welterweight world champion, was found guilty of assaulting former partner Tori-Lee Hillery during an attack last September, reports The Daily Telegraph.

Dryden later posted a video to the social media site in which he called her a number of pejoratives and filmed her lying on the bedroom floor with her hands covering her head.

Giving evidence in Newcastle Local Court, Ms Hillery said she broke up with Dryden last July after the pair had been together for eight years.

The judge adjourned the matter for sentencing until March.

World champion boxer Kyron 'Hitman' Dryden.Source:Facebook

Tori-Lee Hiller.Source:Instagram

8am:

A man has died after being hit by a passing car while checking damage to his vehicle following a collision on NSW’s Central Coast.

He was involved in a crash with another vehicle on the Central Coast Highway near Erina just after 5am this morning and was struck when he got out of his car, police say.

Police in Sweden have had to respond to accusations of a cover-up after scrutiny intensified over why the public were not informed about a number of sexual assaults by men reported to be migrants at a festival in Stockholm in August.

The scandal comes in the wake of New Year’s Eve incidents in Cologne, Germany in which police are investigating scores of sexual assaults often involving asylum seekers.

A Swedish newspaper said that police had not mentioned the attacks until it published details about them, and accused the authorities of failing to warn the public, reports the New York Times.

The reports has spurred speculation that authorities are covering up crimes by asylum seekers in an effort to avoid fanning racial tensions.

7:35am:

A heatwave is set to grip many parts of NSW over the next couple of days, the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) has warned.

Temperatures of over 40 degrees are due in certain areas with western and central western NSW to experience the worst of the high temperatures, reports the ABC.

NSW Police have issued a warning ahead of the heatwave advising people to take care, especially if they were at a higher risk of heat illness, are older, live alone or are socially isolated.

7:25am:

A fugitive in the US suspected of arson and vandalism wasn’t pleased with the mug shot police used in a public effort to track him down, so he graciously sent them a better one.

Donald “Chip” Pugh texted police a new photo of himself complete with his cool sunnies and a tweed blazer writing: “Here is a better photo that one is terrible”.

Player’s gonna play.Source:Facebook

Police in Lima, Ohio, posted the photo to their Facebook page, clearly a little amused.

“This photo was sent to us by Mr. Pugh himself. We thank him for being helpful, but now we would appreciate it if he would come speak to us at the LPD about his charges.”

“Man, they just did me wrong,” Mr Pugh told an Ohio radio station about why he sent the selfie.

“They put a picture out that made me look like I was a Thundercat... or James Brown on the run. I can’t do that.”

7:15am:

The Australian sharemarket hit its weakest point in more than two years yesterday before closing substantially lower, booking its worst losing streak in more than five years.

Local investor nerves were not relieved by a strengthening of the Chinese yuan during the day’s trading session, in which the local bourse dived as much as 2.2 per cent to touch its lowest level in two-and-a-half years.

Monday’s close sees the ASX seal a seven-day losing streak, which it hasn’t done since June 2010, after entering territory not seen since July 2013. The ASX200 has now lost around 7 per cent so far this year, erasing more than $100 billion in market value.

Global investors have been rattled by instability on the Chinese stock market, with Australian markets hit particularly hard thanks to the nation’s exposure to the Chinese economy.

— Business Spectator

7am:

A massive tyre fire, which sent a thick black plume of toxic smoke high into the sky above Melbourne yesterday, could burn for several days, reports the Herald Sun.

People in Melbourne’s north were warned to stay ­indoors and shut windows.

According to an official from the interior ministry, gunmen blew up at least one car bomb before spraying gunfire in the street and storming a mall called Zahrat Baghdad. The Islamic State group later claimed responsibility in a statement posted online.

The attack departed from the jihadist’s usual modus operandi of suicide car bombings.

“At least one of the attackers had a suicide vest and blew himself up inside the mall,” the official said.

6:40am:

A former Sydney man who joined the Islamic State is thought to be the first member of the terrorist group to spruik his credentials on professional networking site Linkedin.

Muhammad Daniel, a 43-year-old New Zealander who changed his name from Mark John Taylor after being deported from Pakistan in 2009, purportedly set up the Linkedin account, reports The Australian.

The man who has previously expressed a desire to flee the Syrian battlefield only to pledge allegiance to IS three months later now says he is a ­puppet-waving schoolteacher.

New Zealand man Muhammad Daniel, AKA Mark John Taylor.Source:Supplied

“(I’m) teaching Grammar, past and present tenses ... Teaching with a puppet and enjoyed having fun with the students,” the Linkedin profile claims.

“Living in the heart of the ­Islamic State is a good experience and I encourage others to come and see for themselves. There’s no danger here and a great place to bring up the family. Except Western Jet fighters that always drop bombs on Civilians!”

6:30am:

A lovely man who just happened to be a musical genius is how Australian music legend Molly Meldrum remembers the “revolutionary” David Bowie.

Bowie, who lived and worked for a decade in Australia, died on Sunday aged 69 after an 18-month battle with cancer.

Meldrum, who has named four dogs Ziggy after Bowie’s alter ego Ziggy Stardust, describes Bowie as a revolutionary who changed the face of music, but also an utter gentleman.

A woman with a tatoo of David Bowie reacts as she pays her respects in front of the British singer, painted by Australian street artist James Cochran in South London.Source:AFP

In an article for News Corp Australia, Meldrum says he hosted a party for Bowie at his home in 1983, and when Meldrum’s home burned down a year later Bowie invited him to stay at his house in Switzerland.

“And after my accident a few years ago there was the sweetest note from David when I finally woke up,” he wrote.

“But that’s what he was like, just a really lovely man who happened to be a musical genius as well.” Bowie brought four of his 14 world tours to Australia and New Zealand, the first in 1978 and the last in 2004.

He spent much of the 1980s living in Australia, owning a flat in Sydney’s Elizabeth Bay from 1983 until 1992.

He recorded with his band Tin Machine in Sydney as well as two film clips in Australia.

-AAP

Outside Newtown fire station in Sydney.Source:imgur

6:20am:

Today is the final Judgement Day for 34 past and present Bombers players — including 12 currently on the club’s playing list and five players on rival teams’ 2016 squads — who were at the club during its 2012 season.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport will this morning announce its findings into World Anti-Doping Agency’s appeal of the AFL Anti Doping Tribunal’s “not guilty” verdict.

The AFL doping board could not find Essendon guilty of allegations of using prohibited substance Thymosin beta-4 during the 2012 season.

WADA appealed the ruling through the CAS in a hearing in Sydney in November.

Mixed emotions as D Day looms for Essendon2:14

AFL: With a conclusion to the doping scandal nearly upon us there's a mixture of anxiety and relief at Essendon.
Relief it's almost over but anxiety given the worst case scenario is suspensions for some of the Bombers biggest stars.

January 8th 2016

a year ago

/video/video.news.com.au/Sport/AFL/News/

6:10am:

The life of a British backpacker has likely been saved after a global Facebook call out for a blood donation after she was involved in a horrific traffic accident in Thailand.

Twenty-one-year-old backpacker Lucy Anne Hill was in critical condition after being hit by a car while riding a motorcycle in Chiang Mai, just a week into her trip.

She was rushed to hospital after the incident for treatment to a blood clot on her brain, where she has been fighting for her life.

Lucy Anne Hill and Lauren Hall in Thailand.Source:Facebook

To make matters a whole lot worse, her blood type is extremely rare with less than one per cent of the Thai population sharing it.

Her friend and travelling companion Lauren Hall posted an impassioned plea on Facebook for those with the blood type in the country to donate.

“Lucy is in a critical condition in intensive care and there is no blood left that can be given to her,” she wrote.

“Less than 0.3 per cent of Thai people have a negative blood type ... It is imperative we get expats or backpackers.”

Fortunately, the viral plea did the trick and Ms Hill was able to get the much needed blood in time and continues to recover in hospital.

Five Australians, including two children, have been killed in a road crash in India while travelling to the Taj Mahal.

According to local media reports, the Australian family was travelling on a highway in the country’s north when a tyre on their SUV burst, causing the vehicle to careen into a safety barrier, then flip onto its roof.

The Times of India reported the family were on their way to the Taj Mahal when the accident occurred on Sunday afternoon.

“The impact of the collision was so great that bodies were found lying in pools of blood nearly five to seven metres away from the mangled car,” the newspaper quoted a local police official, Narendar Singh, as saying.

Anamika Dutta, 45, her daughters Neetika and Pipasa, aged 12 and 15, and sister Sonia, 25, died at the scene, while her 20-year-old son, Tirvijai, died in hospital a short time later.

-AAP

5:45am:

A random act of charity and kindness has gone viral after a man was filmed giving the shirt off his back and a beanie to a homeless man on the New York subway.

Lazar Nolasco, a passenger on the Brooklyn-bound A train, filmed the good deed and uploaded it to Facebook on January 10.

The man was shirtless and appears to be in a state of distress.

Mr Nolasco watched as the good Samaritan dressed the man with his own clothes. The conversation between the two in the video is inaudible but Nolasco told the New York Daily News that the young man then asked if the homeless man wanted to go to hospital, to which the man responded that he did.

“The guy did a good deed, so I wanted to record it,” Nolasco said. “I would tell him, ‘God bless him.’ That was thoughtful.”

Since being uploaded just two days ago, the clip has been watched over 12.5 million times.

“One of the most important parts of this video is that the subway car is nearly empty.

This was just supposed to be a straight up random act of kindness without a thought of repayment, credit, or fame,” wrote Mike Vee wrote on Facebook among the more than 10,000 comments.